ME staff receive training on the implementation of school grants
The Ministry of Education (ME), through the National Directorate of Basic Education, organized a two day training session in Dili, (28th and 29th of January), on school grants, for the Ministry of Education focal points in the 13 districts.
The Vice Minister for Basic Education Schooling, Dulce de Jesus Soares, pointed out at the end of the training session that "in the 2014 State Budget, the Ministry of Education has allocated 4,456 million dollars for Pre-Primary Education, Basic Central Education (EBC), Secondary Schooling and Vocational Technical Education.
The Vice Minister said that the monthly expense will be approximately, per student, US$ 0.75 in Pre-Primary Education, US$ 1.00 in Basic Schooling, and US$ 0,50 in Secondary Schooling, Vocational and Technical Schooling as well as for General Schooling.
The budjet allocation to schools this year, aims at supporting the activities of students and teachers, the purchase of school supplies, and provide for minor repairs and other administrative needs of the schools.
"Whenever budget implementation by teachers is poor, the Ministry of Education shall impose sanctions in accordance with the law," said the Vice Minister Dulce Soares.
The role of the focal points is to speed up the process of preparing reports, in order to correct the constant delay in delivering the reports to the Ministry of Education. Last year, the schools delivered their reports directly to the central services without first checking with the district entities.
"This created a problem. This year, in 2014, the district focal points will verify the reports submitted by the Basic Central Education schools (EBC), before they are sent to the districts. It is then up to the Ministry of Education to send them to the Ministry of Finance", concluded the Vice Minister.
